# HSK 5 and the Chinese Bible

> A reader at HSK 5 knows 67.5% of the word tokens in the Chinese Union Version.

| Level | Word tokens known |
| --- | --- |
| HSK 1 | 44.2% |
| HSK 2 | 53% |
| HSK 3 | 59.7% |
| HSK 4 | 63.2% |
| HSK 5 | 67.5% |
| HSK 6 | 71.4% |
| HSK 7-9 | 77.5% |

Not on any HSK list: 22.5% of word tokens.

## Books with the most HSK 5 vocabulary

| Book | HSK 5 tokens | Distinct words |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2 John | 78% | 138 |
| 1 John | 77.9% | 395 |
| John | 77% | 1,647 |
| 3 John | 75.2% | 160 |
| Mark | 73.6% | 1,933 |
| Matthew | 73.4% | 2,475 |
| Luke | 73.1% | 2,749 |
| 2 Corinthians | 72.1% | 1,165 |
| Revelation | 71.7% | 1,555 |
| 2 Thessalonians | 71.3% | 360 |

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/hsk/5

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute (an assumption)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


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- Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike.
- Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
- Built with https://chinese-bible.com